From the GMR: Results of E-Licensing / Group Purchasing Questionnaire and Next Steps

An update from the GMR E-Licensing/Group Purchasing group....

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Hello, GMR Members!

Thank you for submitting your responses to the E-Licensing/Group Purchasing questionnaire in May. The E-Licensing Working Group of the RAC has a conference call scheduled in about a week to discuss the findings of the questionnaire, and determine next steps. Some of those next steps will be to pick 2-4 products from the findings and offer them as trials to the membership. A listserv will be created for communication purposes regarding these and future offers. Those members who are interested in participating or being kept up-to-date about these offers are encouraged to sign up for this list. (The list has not been created yet, and you will be notified when it has been created and welcomed to join.)

Background: The E-Licensing Working Group of the RAC at the GMR has been in contact with the Midwest Collaborative for Library Services (MCLS) about possibly offering group purchasing of health-related online packages (ebooks, ejournals, databases, etc) to all GMR members in the 10-state region. In order to determine which packages might be initially offered to GMR members, we asked members to complete a questionnaire.

The products mentioned in the questionnaire are all electronic versions - no print versions. At the time the questionnaire went out, the vendors informed us that these offers were for new business only. Things have changed with some of the vendors, and some of them are now willing to open up offers to existing subscribers. When offers/trials are announced via the new listserv, each product/service will be noted with subscription criteria.

Thank you all for your patience during this process. Not to jinx this, but if we get this off the ground, we will be the only region in the country to offer region-wide group purchasing.